This article was co-authored by Christopher Taylor. Christopher Taylor is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of English at Austin Community College in Texas. He received his PhD in English Literature and Medieval Studies from the University of Texas at Austin in 2014.

There are 10 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page.

Websites are helpful sources of information, but they may convey outdated information. The publication date of the site helps you know how current the info is and if it is still valid, but some articles and blog posts hide this info to make the article seem fresh.[1] By scanning through the page or digging through the source code, you can find the date easily!

Steps

Method1

Checking on the Web Page

1

Look underneath the headline of an article or blog post. Most news sites and blogs will list the date underneath the title of the article along with the name of the author. When the page first loads, check for smaller text under the headline and just above where the article starts.[2]

There may be a 1-sentence secondary headline or an image between the title of the post and the date.

Some articles may have been updated after their publication date. When this is the case, you should see a disclaimer at the beginning or the end of the article that says when it was edited and why.

2

Check the bottom of the web page for a copyright date. The end of an article or the copyright information at the bottom of the web page may also have a date. The date on the bottom is typically the last time the website was updated and may not reflect the date on the post you’re reading.[3]

Look at the section of the article that contains a short bio of the author. Sometimes, the date may be right above or below it.

The copyright date is usually only listed by the year and does not contain a specific month or day.

A current copyright date tells you that the site is still active and being regularly updated. Overall, it's a good indication that the material will be fairly up-to-date. If it contains timely articles, then each article should have its own date.

3

See if the date is listed in the URL. Look in the address bar and scroll through the URL. Some blogs and websites autofill the web address with the date that a post was written. You may find the full date, or you might just find the month and the year.[4]

Make sure you are on the web page dedicated to the individual post and not an archive or index page. Click on the post’s headline to confirm you’re on the post-specific page.

Many blogs edit the URL so it’s shorter and easier to search, so you may not find the date there.

4

Look at the timestamps on any comments on the page. While this is not the most accurate method, it can give you a sense on when the article was first published. Look next to the username in the comments to find the time when it was written. Scroll until you find the earliest date. If the user interacted when the article was published, this will be the closest date to publication.[5]

Method2

Searching the Source Code

1

Right-click on the page and select “View Page Info.” Once you click on the menu option, it will open a new window or tab filled with the code from the website. It may look overwhelming, but this page will carry a lot of information not listed on the site.[6]

The keyboard shortcut to open the source code directly is Control+U on Windows and Command+U on Mac.[7]

2

Open the Find feature on your browser. Either hit Control+F on Windows or Command+F on Mac while you have the source code window selected. You can also access the Find feature by clicking Edit in the top menu bar and clicking “Find…” in the drop-down menu.[8]

3

Search for the term “datePublished”, “publishdate” or “published_time”. Type in either of the search terms and hit enter. The Find function will search through all of the code for your term and scroll directly to where it’s found.[9]

If neither of the search terms work, type “publish” into the Find function. There may be new source code that uses a different term.

If you want to know when a web page was last changed or updated, search the source code for “modified.”

4

Look for the date listed in year-month-day order. The date will be directly after the term you searched. The year will be listed first, followed by the month and the day.[10]

Community Q&A

Tips

News websites will include the publication dates underneath the headlines so you know how current the reports are as well as their validity.

Look out for dates of updates. Sometimes websites will even put the dates of when each page was updated or edited, so don't confuse this with the real publication date.

Warnings

If you are trying to find the date for research purposes or for citing purposes, don't "guesstimate", as that would count as intentionally putting false information. If you really can't find anything about a date, just list that there is no date (different citation formats have different ways of showing this).

Article Info

This article was co-authored by Christopher Taylor. Christopher Taylor is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of English at Austin Community College in Texas. He received his PhD in English Literature and Medieval Studies from the University of Texas at Austin in 2014.